By Julie Samrick Matthais Zierhut has prepared for this role his whole life. The 16-year-old high school sophomore is the planner and coordinator of his town’s first Light It Up Blue event in recognition of World Autism Awareness Day on Wednesday, April 2. Autism Speaks created the campaign where more than 1,300 cities spanning all… Read more

If you are a person of a certain age, you remember what it was like to use a rotary phone—the slow process of dialing, the weird clicking sound the wheel made. These kids in the latest video from Benny and Rafi Fine are too young for that. Watch how adorably perplexed they are when this relic is placed… Read more

By Julie Samrick When my oldest child turned one a friend gave him alphabet magnets for his birthday. We placed them on the refrigerator and he’d reach for them, so we moved them lower, showing him first how magnets work. Soon they ended up on the kitchen floor and seeing the 26 letters brought the… Read more

By Jay Mathews When Linda Mc­Veigh began second grade at Kit Carson Elementary School in Lawndale, Calif., her teacher saw she was far ahead. She had learned to read at age four from her 12-year-old aunt. The blonde 7-year-old from a rural Oklahoma family was funny and talkative. Her math scores were very high. The… Read more

Since 2005, when the College Board added an essay to the SAT (raising the total possible score from 1,600 to 2,400) earliest findings showed that length, more than any other factor, correlated with a high score on the essay. More recently, Perelman coached 16 students who were retaking the test after having received mediocre scores… Read more

How do you spell a spelling bee that goes 66 rounds in more than four hours and causes the organizers to run out of words? The answer is T-I-E, for now. Sophia Hoffman, a fifth-grader at Highland Park Elementary School in the Kansas City suburb of Lee’s Summit, and Kush Sharma, a seventh-grader at Frontier… Read more

By Hannah Flom I’ve been home for the past month, when I’m not binge-watching Netflix and stalking my college friends on Facebook, I’m helping my sister with the college process. The other night, we were doing the College Board search to help you determine compatible colleges, and I realized that there was a lot I… Read more

By Julie Samrick My sixth grader’s middle school spent at least a month communicating the message the leap to middle school means the children put forth more effort, without the meddling of well-intentioned parents. If they forget their lunch, for instance, let them figure it out and they most likely won’t forget it again. We… Read more

In a snow-covered park in the Hunts Point section of the South Bronx, an enclosed cemetery in the park’s center evokes a much different neighborhood from the one now jammed with auto-glass shops and wholesale produce markets. Headstones engraved with “Hunt” and “Leggett” hark back to the 18th and 19th centuries, when prominent New York… Read more

By Francis L. Thompson My wife and I had 12 children over the course of 15 1/2 years. Today, our oldest is 37 and our youngest is 22. I have always had a very prosperous job and enough money to give my kids almost anything. But my wife and I decided not to. I will share… Read more

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Julie Samrick
Finally, someone’s speaking out on the increasing madness of youth sports. A former professional athlete turned coach, now father of two, was in my town last week on one stop of a national lecture tour

When I was 6-years-old my parents told my three sisters and me we were adopting a baby boy. When I got off the school bus the day of our much-anticipated special delivery my mom was there to greet us. “Meet your new

At long last we’ve found a happy medium. My seventh grader got his much-desired smart phone this summer and everything I dreaded about it hasn’t happened (knock on wood). He’s not on it 24/7 or even head down, zoned

By Julie Samrick
As political, social and religious wars rage around the world and we hear of the bloodshed of children, the most innocent among us, most other topics seem petty to discuss.
Yet the new

By Julie Samrick
I wanted to let you know I'll be taking a short leave from writing articles for Kid Focused while I work on a clean, kid friendly, novel.
I've always wanted to tackle a book and have finally found

By Julie Samrick
Three-year-old Joseph’s flu-like symptoms were the first indicator something was wrong. “It was odd because he was only vomiting at night and he was really lethargic during the day,” said his mother

By Julie Samrick
As we sat around the campfire last weekend I pulled out an old Girl Scout goody for the 11 kids in our party. My Aunt Tilly, she died last night, she died last night, did she die?
At first

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By Ann Van De Water
Over the counter "Swimmer's Ear" drops contain alcohol. The prescription is an antibiotic and does not contain alcohol. I learned this the hard way.
My daughter had been complaining of ear pain so I told my husband I thought she had swimmer's ear and that I'd make a ... Read more

By Mario Vittone
The new captain jumped from the deck, fully dressed, and sprinted through the water. A former lifeguard, he kept his eyes on his victim as he headed straight for the couple swimming between their anchored sportfisher and the beach.
“I think he thinks you’re ... Read more

By Lowry Manders
I recently heard author Bruce Feiler interviewed on NPR about his book The Secrets of Happy Families and as I listened I thought to myself, “I have got to get a book published!” He is echoing so much of the things I preach (and try to live) about how to create happy families in ... Read more